SCIENCE NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3196, 16 June 1915, Page 74

SCIENCE NOTES.

—Rotation of Saturn’s Satellites.— Observations made at the Lowell Observatory on the varying brightness of Mimas and Enceladus, two satellites of Saturn, indicate that these bodies rotate on their axes in periods identical with those of their revolution around the primary—i.o., they behave like our own moon, and probably like satellites generally.

—To Remove Foreign Flavour from Milk.—

Recent investigations in the Dairy Division of the United States Bureau of Animal Industry have proved that the flavour of garhc -may be entirely removed from milk by blowing air through it while it is hold at a temperature of at least 140 deg Fahr. An exposure of 50 minutes at 145 deg is sufficient to free milk from the most objectionable flavour. A somewhat longer exposure is necessary for cream. -—Horse of Three Toes. —

The missing link in the evolution of the horse has, it is stated, been discovered in the mioceno strata of the Southern Sierra Nevadas. It has just been reported to the Pacific Coast Division of the Palaeontological Society of America. The fossil form, discovered by J. B. Buwalda, of the University of California, is that of a three-toed horse of the merycohippus type, long sought by scientists to fill the gap in the history of the horse. It is said the fossil fits precisely the description of a hypothetical animal which scientists maintain must have existed in horse history. —New Rubber Solution.—

A new rubber preparation, invented by Dr M. Hellbronner, a German chemist, is claimed to offer a solution of true vulcanised rubber that can be kept in a semi-fluid form, and thus can be used when desired to cement or weld together rubber surfaces. On evaporating the solvent, pure vulcanised rubber is left in the usual insoluble state. The preparation is made, states the Chemical Trades Journal, by dissolving one part of crude rubber in about 15 parts, of a light hydrocarbon solvent, then adding a solution of crystallised sulphur in benzine, and submitting the mixture to the action of ultraviolet light from a quartz-tube Cooper-Hcwitt mercury-vapour lamp. —Substitutes for Alcohol. — To people who are seeking for good temperance drinks in these days when alcohol is going out of fashion, a medical correspondent of The Times offers some ingenious suggestions. The best “pick-me-up,” he says, is hot milk with a liberal allowance of cane sugar in it. The effect of the cane sugar is a general bracing up of the muscular system, which lasts long after the effect of alcohol would have passed away. As a stimulant, sal volatile (aromatic spirits of ammonia) is also a sound substitute for whisky or brandy; while, as restoratives, very strong black coffee and very strong tea are well known to bo almost equally good —or had, for both produce great wakefulness followed by a period of depression. Strong lemon drinks are good refreshers, but exert a “lowering” influence. Dry .ginger ale is the best of all manufactured non-alcoholic beverages. Oatmeal water and barley water are excellent drinks, but for sheer merit buttermilk stands in a class by itself.

—Male Birds with Female Plumage.—

It is not at all an uncommon thing for hen birds, owing to old age or injury, to begin to take on the plumage of the cock and the interesting case has been described in Knowledge of a hen ostrich which, when its ovaries wore removed, developed mala plumage entirely. The reverse case, however, is rare. The same publication gives a photograph of a stuffed specimen of the common pheasant in Eton College Museum, which came from the Millais Collection, in which the tail feathers, though of the length usually found in the male, arc coloured aiid marked like those of the female. There are also certain feathers on the sides of the bird which, instead of being brilliantly coloured like those of the cock, are soberhued like those of the hen. —The Stars of Napoleon.—

Camille Flammarion, writing in L’Astronomie, records with' much gusto the fact that a Gorman university once sought to curry favour with Napoleon by dedicating a group of stars to him. In 1307, when the French conqueror was at the summit of his power, the University of Leipzig issued a statement to the learned world, setting forth the reasons which had led) it “to consecrate to the glory of his majesty Napoleon the stars of the sword and the belt of Orion.’’ These stars were not to constitute a new constellation, but an asterism in the Constellation of Orion bearing the special name of Stellas Napoleonis, just as a certain group of stars in Taurus bears the name of Pleiades, and another the Hyades. etc. The academic announcement contained much fulsome praise of Napoleon, and pointed out the appropriateness of giving his name to a group of stars surmounting the constellation of Frida mis (the Po), the namesake of the terrestrial river near which Napoleon won his early victories. —lnvisible Icebergs.— In a recent communication to the New York Tribune, Abbot 11. Thayer, the artist, asserts that many vessels have been lost by collisions with Icebergs because, under certain conditions of sky and light, they aro invisible. Ho cites the fact that on the occasion of the Titanic disaster, although the black ship was clearly visible to survivors at a distance of several miles, thev could not see tho white bergs against which they actually heard the wash, of tho sea.

110 claims that on a clear starry night tho bergs are so nearly tho same colour as tho sky that they are totally invisible, and that the same is the case under many conditions ot cloudiness, tho only exception being when the side of the berg viewed is in such shadow that it shows black against the sky. In other words, it is impossible to see white against white. We do not see white against black, as is tho general impression of the conditions that prevail in tho case of icebergs at night. _As an experiment ho suggests that we view the snow-covered roots of neighbouring houses at night, fur enough away from artificial lights so that the sky is not affected by them. Ho asserts that it will be impossible to distinguish tho white, snowy reefs, which correspond in colour with the iceberg, from the sky. The same result is found when tho roofs are observed in broad daylight on a cloudy day whenever tho light is uniform. In answer to the criticism of those who say they never saw a berg at night that was the colour of tho sky, tho answer is that this is very natural, because this is the very condition under which the berg is invisible. Mr Thayer makes tile suggestion that a very simple way to avoid the danger of colliding with an invisible berg would be to use a searchlight; the reflection would show up tho berg very plainly. —A Humane Aigrette Industry.— The latest “Webster” dictionary says of aigrettes that “they grow only during the breeding season, so that in obtaining them not only are tho parent birds killed, but the young are left to starve.- The egrets producing them are therefore fast becoming extinct.” While this statement is true of the aigrette industry as heretofore generally conducted, and the cruelty of aigrette-hunt-ing has led to widespread legislation intended to discourage traffic in these feathers, it appears that a perfectly humane method of obtaining tho latter lias been evolved in India. In the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society Mr George Birch, assistant Commissioner of the Province of Sind, reports that egrets have been very extensively domesticated in that province. Tho birds are bred in captivity, and are plucked of their “ospreys” or aigrettes without suffering any injury, just as in the case of ostriches. The conditions of captivity make them more productive of aigrettes than are wild birds, as tho young arc taken away from their parents, to be roared by hand, when about a week old, aud the parents then breed again. Thus the nuptial plumage, which is all that is commercially valuable, is assumed four times a year. The birds are liberally fed with fish, and are so tame that they allow themselves to be seized without showing any fear. Tho killing of egrets for their plumage was prohibited in the province about 30 years ago. The practice arose of snaring the birds and keeping them in captivity, but this led to the cruel custom of stitching up the birds’ eyes in order to prevent their escape. After the authorities put a stop to the latter feature of the industry, egret-farming became so humane and legitimate a business as to render unnecessary and unreasonable the present law against shipping - the feathers out of India. Tho industry has become extremely profitable.